Category Archives: Media

Monthly Newsletters and mixed media

Running on the Edge of the Shutdown

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Shutdown Safe Running Routes: in 10, 15, and 20 mile flavors.

Shutdown Safe Running Routes: in 10, 15, and 20 mile flavors.

Lauren Gabler suggests some constructive alternatives to our staple Sunday Distance Run training options, which are being denied to us by wanton, dangerous Congressional budget shenanigans with bafflingly arbitrary repercussions. She sez:

The government shutdown has closed some of our favorite running routes, including the Capital Crescent Trail and Rock Creek Park, but that won’t stop us from getting in our Sunday long run!

We’ve mapped out 10, 15, and 20 mile running routes that avoid all National Park areas but still go through some of the most beautiful parts of our city:

It’s supposed to be unseasonably warm on Sunday, so you might want to bring your own water as these routes do not have as many fountains as the ones in the parks. We hope to see you there!

Updated: Enjoy our interactive “Shutdown Safe” map, including running-specific amenities (i.e. drinking fountains, toilets, and tracks). Continue reading →

Absolutely Fabulous

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This morning, we began distributing pre-ordered 2013 Series singlets and they look terrific! Several club members slipped into these slices of awesome on-the-spot. So much for modesty.

The custom singlets (and their owners) got lots of attention, fetching compliments along the various training routes followed by the dozens of runners convening on this perfect morning.

Our thanks go to Rachel Clattenburg for designing and ordering everything, and also to Pactimo for all their good work.

Pending enough demonstrated interest, we can place another round of orders with relatively quick turnaround. If this interests you, please petition el Prez, Kirk Masterson, and let him know.

Node to Self

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Official Course Marker

Runners often consider race courses to be gem-like objects of perfection, possessing a logic to their geometry’s purpose.

However, out in the real world and away from the track, we have to cope with what we’ve got, often with components that can be charitably called “chunky.” Sure, your map might promise you taut curves and pert points. But where the road happens to zig, the racers must zag.

Those lat-lon nodes you used to mark the start, finish, and the intermediate kilometers? They manifest as strips of day-glo duct tape, annotated, plastered atop an epoxy stripe, roughly down the middle of the waffling macadam.

For the purpose at hand, it’s usually good enough. And sometimes there’s a Rothko-esque beauty to be found underfoot. It helps to know where to look.

Mr. BlurryCam took some pictures at the 2.5K turnaround point of this evening’s Roosevelt Run 5K.

Thanks go to Fiona and Paul Karlsen, el Prez Kirk Masterson, Treasurer James Scarborough, and Jay Wind for contributing both their time and effort, to pull off a thrifty and competently executed mid-week race.

Every Cloud DOES Have a Silver Lining

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FLASH NEWS: WRC scholar-athlete Daniel Yi, and his doping liability spreading idea from 2005, gets a mention in today’s New Yorker (“Tyson Gay and How to Clean Up Track”, by Nicholas Thompson, online edition). That article is available here, and Daniel’s original paper for Legal Affairs is available here.

Clattenburg and A Unicorn Go Forth and Win at Go Fourth 8K

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Six WRCers and two compadres gathered early on Independence Day, at the historic Vienna Town Green. Hosted by our friends of the PVTC, together we sweetly sang the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner to the accompaniment of an MP3 file played back on a BlackBerry held up to a P.A. mic.

In fact, we sang a little too fast for the frugivorous gizmo that symbolizes this Washingtonian life. Were we perhaps nudged out of meter by some magnetic inducement flowing from the extra high voltage 230 kV transmission lines looming above us?

Whatever the case, it was marvelous to watch the B.A.A.’s Jonathan Baker zoom off in a flurry, followed brightly by newcomer Daisuke Ogata, dressed in day-glo orange hat and shirt and mistaken more than once for a distant traffic cone. Rachel Clattenburg in red paced herself wisely, climbing up the ranks throughout the race. We slapped low-fives as we passed along the out-and-back course.

Everyone left the race with some quarry of Stars and Stripes, whether in the form of a beach towel, embroidered flags (both in original and Vermont antiqued flavors), or just the shorts they wore to the race. I offered my own flag to Daisuke as a gift, and he immediately requested to have his picture taken with it in the now-standard USATF display. What a great country, that even our silliest of motifs are accessible to all.

Full results are available here; WRC (& friends) results are below.

Potomac Valley Track Club Go Fourth 8K
W&OD Trail, Vienna VA
Thursday, July 4, 2013

5K  Name               G Age Time    M  F    Award
-- --------------------- --- ------  -  -   --------
1  Jonathan Baker      M  29 27:15   1      M20-29 1 B.A.A #Unicorns
5  Rachel Clattenburg  F  29 33:16      1   F20-29 1
6  Kit Wells           M  36 33:35   5      M30-39 3
7  Daisuke Ogata       M  38 33:51   6
12 Jay Jacob Wind      M  63 36:09   9      M60-69 1
18 Jerold Paulson      M  54 38:23  14      M50-59 2
33 James Scarborough   M  55 43:34  24
41 Benjamin Stutts     M  24 45:47 28:47*  27      M20-29 2
91 finishers
* late start, due to confusing pre-race instructions

UPDATE: A race report by Maggie Lloyd was published on RunWashington.com, here.

SDR Time Change, Departures and Arrivals

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Sunday Distance Run Time Change to 7:00 a.m.

The summer heat and humidity is planning to arrive later this week, so in an effort to beat the heat, we will start our Sunday Distance Run an hour earlier, effective Sunday, June 2, 2013. The 7 a.m. start time will be in effect through September 1st, as reflected on WRC’s calendar.

Good luck to Michaela Corr and Daniel Yi

Michaela is departing for her summer internship in the Olympic city of Rio de Janeiro (BRA). And Dan is destined for Durban (RSA), Pietermaritzburg, and all points in-between for the Comrades Marathon (54 miles). Good luck to them both!

Team Photo-Op this coming Sunday

With all the new members and visitors finding us, let’s mark the occasion with a club photo before kicking off the next Sunday run. We’ll have it posted and captioned online lickety-split.